Musings of a Designer on Jewelry, Crochet, Crochet Patterns, Knitting, Running a Crafty Business, Movie Costumes, Books, Art, Design, Steampunk & the Geek Girl Life

Friday, December 09, 2011

Book Review: "Interweave Crochet Accessories 2011"

Next up in holiday knit and crochet magazine reviews is the "Interweave Crochet Accessories 2011".

As an avid crocheter, I have been drooling for this to be released. Bought it without even peeking inside and settled down happily at home with some tea ready for some crochet bliss. Well....should have peeked. All I can say is, "What happened??" I have been noticing the 70's trending becoming more and more prominent in "Crochet Today", and it is certainly present here. In spades. All those bad 1970's acrylic crocheted toilet paper covers, lamp shades and granny square afghans in lurid colors are the reason it took crochet such a long time to stage a comeback. Let's not bring back that reputation. When you look at all the smart, gorgeous modern crochet patterns promoted in places like Stitch Diva Studios and Russian crochet periodicals,and by designers like Robyn Chachula in her Blueprint books, this issue is a real missed opportunity.

There are a few cute things in here, like the children's hats, but on the whole it made my eyes hurt. DayGlo primary orange, red, blue and yellow seemed to be the colors designers were urged to use. Many, many designs were of the repetitive "one simple motif" kind. The type of projects beginning crocheters start out with. It's true gift items need to be speedy to be finished in time for the holidays, but simplicity never seems to be a factor in similarly themed knitting magazines. Only crochet seems to be perpetually for beginners in the marketing overmind.

Bottom Line? Skip it. Live in the new Millennium.

1 comment:

babbles said...

This edition has been so difficult to get. I'm happy to hear that I don't need to add it to my collection.